Southern congressional power depended on a small race-restricted electorate

Evidence

Because blacks and poor whites almost always outnumbered white elites in any election district, the Democrats’ strategy was a tenuous one: if even a small proportion of blacks or poor whites could be registered and enabled to vote, power within an individual district, or across the Party as a whole, could be shifted. As Patricia Sullivan concludes, “The inordinate power enjoyed by southern members of Congress was dependent on a small electorate restricted by race and class.” PATRICIA SULLIVAN, DAYS OF HOPE: RACE AND DEMOCRACY IN 112. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 212

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the dependency: entrenchment rests on keeping a numerically-dominant group out — the vulnerability that unions and citizenship drives tried to exploit. — connects to: Southern Democrats used labor law to block CIO-driven voter realignment — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 211